Not RW related, but I hope it’s OK to ask for some advice about Little Snitch.
Is it worth it? Is it effective, and does it hog system resources? A colleague installed it because he was having HDD issues, but thought that Little Snitch made it slower. However, he wasn’t sure in the end whether it did have any negative effect on system resources as he uninstalled it and got an SSD.
I’ve never used it but I’m sure that’s one of the apps that’s been blamed for RW going awry at times for some users
I’ve used it on and off, mostly to discover how programs are phoning home so I can block them in the host file. I’ve never noticed an adverse effect on the system.
I used the v3 quite often, wasn’t able to install 4 by now.
It hooks into the boot loader or system kernel stuff to get the network analysis work done.
Never had system resource issues. Nice app.
I have used it and it works very well. I recall that it got blamed for RW6 & 7 FTP issues, but my experience was that there was no improvement or change using the built in FTP in RW, when I removed Little Snitch. I also had Little Snitch running with many different stand alone FTP Apps such as Transmit, Forklift, etc, and it never caused an issue.
Been using it years, never had any problems with RW or any other program. It did save me on one occasion when a relative visited and logged onto my WiFi and I got a notification on my MacPro of unusual activity (long story but could have been very nasty!)
Little Snitch is one of those long standing, best in class Mac apps that are decreasingly common these days. It does exactly what it says on the tin, works 100% of the time, makes no marketing claims and is never discounted or included as fodder in a Mac App bundle or package. Also the icon is classic old school Mac and remains just as good today.
Totally agree with this. I have used it for years. It just works. No downside at all.
Long time user here too…up to LS4…I’ve had it since day one and never had any problems at all.
But why would one use it for HDD issues? It’s a Network monitor…
At the time he didn’t know it was an HDD issue. Something was really slowing down his machine and Little Snitch was one thing he used to investigate the cause.
LS is at least as solid as RW
gives you warnings when your computer wants to connect to (un)wanted connections, everyone should use LittleSnitch
Oh, ok 👍🏽 Then I misunderstood you on that one.
Anyway LS is one of the best Mac programs available, highly recommended.
I’ve been using it for years with NO issues.
Only people who use it AND block Realmac’s registration server (or their ftp server - yes, that happens) have complained of problems. In other words, PEBCAK.
I’ve used Little Snitch for years and it never caused any problems with RW (any version).
Transit currently has an Apple related problem, meaning that I have to allow access every time I use it instead of allowing permanent access. Otherwise – “as solid as RW”? – much more solid!
Highly recommended!
Yikes!
I would say that Little Snitch is at the opposite end of the stability and reliability spectrum to RW.
When there is a new version of LS it works 100%, doesn’t crash, is tested fully and has genuinely useful new features with no marketing crap to make claims about it.
I guess that was meant ironically 😉
In fairness to RW, LS has to do way less stuff than RW so it’s unfair to draw any parallel. Little Snitch just monitors network traffic, RW does far more complicated and intensive stuff, and is way more prone to users fecking it up.
When RW is working, it’s pretty bloody solid, given it’s reliance on so many other layers of services/products that are all produced by different people to different standards. When you actually step back and look at things holistically, that RW actually works at all in pretty impressive.
Without wanting to turn this thread into another RW/RM knocking shop, RW’s Achilles heel isn’t itself but RM’s habit of over promising and under delivering.
I would say Little Snitch is way more complex than RW and would need a huge amount of testing and high levels of debuting to find and fix issues. You can tell LS s a complex program by the fact there are no real competitors to LS.
Although I suspect the continued demand for LS is the fact that, I have been told, is due to being mentioned in pirated versions of Adobe Suites and other software. Ahem.
Little Snitch is great.
Radio Silence is a very decent (and simpler and cheaper) alternative.
Anybody else use Radio Silence ? I would love to hear others thoughts on this App.